Pages

Saturday, May 5, 2018

joys of spring?

OMG, these birds are driving us a bit bonkers. Apparently, they have a nest nearby to protect. And we have a killer cat.

Every time the cat goes outside, the screechfest begins. Two birds constantly harass by buzzing him and screeching and pecking on stuff. I did some online research and quickly identified the nasty neighbors as Western Scrub Jays.

See? It just looks grumpy all the time!

I learned that there is no color difference between male and female scrub jays, so I'm assuming these two in our yard are Mom and Dad. They're actually quite pretty birds, but with horrible personalities.

Listed under behavior: "Assertive, inquisitive, and vocal" Yup.

If one of us humans is outside with the cat, they leave him/us alone while keeping a watchful eye. So now the cat not only lets us know he wants to go out, he also begs us to go with him. Bodyguard style.

I'll admit that I've lobbed a lacrosse ball at them a few times - meaning only to scare them off. However, if one of my tosses were to "accidentally" hit the mark, I'm not sure I'd be too remorseful.

But then I think, they're just being good parents. Good parents that make for lousy neighbors.

I was thinking this morning that we could rig up some sort of scarecrow... scarejay? Maybe tether some obnoxious mylar balloons in the yard, but with my luck it wouldn't work. Then we'd have annoying birds and obnoxious mylar balloons in the yard.